aS a ey 


ie 








CATALOGUE 
OF AN EXHIBITION OF 
ETCHINGS BY 


JAMES McBEY 


DECEMBER IST TO IITH, 1926 


M. KNOEDLER & COMPANY 
14 EAST FIFTY-SEVENTH STREET 
NEW YORK 





int 














JAMES McBEY 


HEN I look at McBey’s work in its different 
) phases from year to year, from subject to sub- 
? ject, it seems always to show new zest and 
eagerness, and ardour unabated in the search 
of fresh experience. As each new set of his 
7 work has come forward, there has always 
been a suggestion of the rising tide. In each set there is al- 
ways one that quietly and unobtrusively creeps beyond all 
its forerunners. And as it swells and advances, his work seems 
to embody less particularisation, and an increasing tendency 
to detachment and abstraction, to a search not for the circum- 
stances but for the essence and spirit of life and nature. It 1s 
not the crowd that interests him, but its movement; not the 
sea, but its power and its menace; not the desert, but its vast- 
ness and its silence; not the man, but the mind behind the 
mask of the features. Others have made notable etchings of 
cathedrals and crumbling architecture, of ships and the sea- 
shore, of wide stretches of landscape. All this McBey has 
done; but why does he give, every now and then, the little 
more (and how much it is!) that few have ever given? Can 
I explain what I mean by saying that he leads us to a realisa- 
tion of rhythmical forces in lifeand nature, and toa perception, 
not merely of the actual, but of the poetry and romance 
behind the actual; to an understanding of the deep and mov- 
ing drama that always throbs beneath the surface of ordinary, 
everyday life; to a realisation that man and his works, all 
things animate and inanimate, sea and sky and all that in 
them is, have a past and a future as well as a present? That 
is what I have tried to indicate in speaking of such plates as 
The Pool, The Sussex, Dawn, The Gale at Port Erroll, The Piantst, 
and The Ebb Tide. 

He has achieved his success by methods of his own. Except 


CMe 





perhaps in some of his earlier plates, he is not directly influ- 
enced by any man or school. Just as each of us inherits some- 
thing—of colour, habit, character—from his ancestors, so 
each of McBey’s works owes something to his great forbears 
(even to his great contemporaries), and yet has its own body, 
its own colour, its own soul—possibly an immortal soul. If 
he has been influenced by Rembrandt, by Whistler, by Haden, 
by Forain, he has been influenced more by their outlook than 
by their methods. They are the stars by which he has some- 
times steered his course. But he has never been an imitator. 
He accepts each subject, as Sir Walter Raleigh recently wrote 
about Whistler, ‘‘as presenting a new set of conditions to be 
studied and subdued, by new devices, to theservice of beauty. 
Great traditions of the past, splendid stirrings of the present, 
may act as leaven to his yeast; but he never asks himself, 
‘How would Rembrandt have seen this?’’ or “How would 
Whistler have set it on the copper?’ He prefers to begin at 
a new beginning, and create afresh. And heis like Rembrandt 
and Whistler, not so much in his work as in his resistance to 
the besetting temptation of every artist—the danger of being 
led by a past success into formula and repetition. It is a 
feature of his art that he has always been untiring in ad- 
venture, seeking always to find the new peak, the further 
view. 

.. . One cannot overlook the part played in his work by 
paper and by printing. Ever since his first visit to Amsterdam 
in 1910, he has been an enthusiastic collector of old paper. 
He felt, from the first, that it had qualities of tone and texture 
and durability that made it desirable for the printing of an 
etching, and since then ‘‘he has used no other.” And he ts 
right; for, to quote his own words, ‘‘the skin of old paper 
has become soft and velvety, due to the action of time on the 
surface size, while the strength of the actual paper has not 
been impaired.’’. . . Every proof is printed with his own 
hands and carefully considered before he writes his signature 


C4) 


beneath. And the collector may like to know that he may 
own proofs printed on paper coming from the volumes in 
which Rembrandt kept his prints, or from one that belonged 
to Sir Peter Lely in 1669. . . . But sheets of old paper are so 
varied that each calls for a different kind of printing. ‘‘When 
the artist himself prints,’’ he says, “‘the printing may be re- 
garded as actually a continuation of his etched work, the com- 
bination of both culminating in the finished proof.’’. . [still 
believe that McBey’s work will survive all fluctuating mem- 
ories and sympathies, just because it has an individual soul 
that is imperishable. So, like the mounted figures that in his 
Dawn set out into the boundless desert, let my belief in his 
work go out, along with it, into the vast incertitude of the 


future. 
MARTIN HARDIE 


Gs") 








CATALOGUE 


t Portsoy Harspour 


Hardze 8 21 proofs 


2 Vicroria BripGe, ABERDEEN 


Hardte1x ‘55 proofs only 


3 Nortu Bripce, EpiInsurGH 
Hardie 22. ~—‘10 proofs only 


4 PLUMsTONE CLOSE 
Hardze 2.4 10 proofs only 


5 Moray House 
Hardie 30 ‘5, proofs only 


6 THe Cowcate, EDINBURGH 


Hardze 33 26 proofs 


7 MoontLiGHT IN THE Woop 
Hardze 45 3, proofs only 


8 MorninGc, CATTERLINE 


Hardie56  —- 40 proofs 


9g ENKHUISEN 
Hardie67_  ~—- 40 proofs 


10 Hoorn CHEESEMARKET 
Hardze 69 8 proofs only 
The Cheesemarket in the Rodesteen at nae To the left, 
a bronze statue inscribed JAN PrETERSZ. COEN 1587-1620. 


11 RANSDORP 
Hardie 75 AI proofs 
eZ) 


12 Otp Macuar Towers. (No.2) . 
Hardie 85 Proof No.2 — 4 proofs printed 


13 BurGos 


Hardze 93 25 proofs 


14 AvILA 


Hardie94 =: 3,0 proofs 


15 VALENCIA BEACH 


Hardze 97 30 proofs 


16 BENICARLO 
Hardie 100 27 proofs 


17 VINAROZ 
Hardie 101 22 proofs 


18 Vinaroz: Boat BuILDING 
Hardie1ou —_ 40 proofs 


19 Tue Picapor INcrITEs THE BULL 


Hardie 104 30 proofs 


20 Tur Picapor UNHORSED 
Hardie 106 20 proofs 


21 THe BANDERILLAS 
Hardze 107 27 proofs 


22 Tue Towy aT CARMARTHEN 
Hardie 111 30 proofs 


23, CARMARTHEN 
Hardie 112 —-20 proofs 


C8) 


24 A View In WALEs 
Hardie 113 4o proofs 


25 ApRiIL IN KENT 


Hardie 114 
26 THe SKYLARK 

Hardie 117 
he 1 8 8" 


Hardie 123 (A) -Frarst State 
(B) Proof C of 12 proofs 


28 THe Breap Market, TETUAN 
Hardie 127 


29 [THE ORANGE SELLER 
Hardie 128 


30 THE JEwisH QuarTER, TETUAN 
Hardze 129 


31 THe Story—-TELLER 
Hardze 13,0 


32 GunsmiTHs, TETUAN 
Hardie 13,2. 


33, Beccars, Tetuan (No.2) 
Hardze 13,4 


34 Ex Soxo 
Hardze 13,5 


35 A Moroccan Market 
Hardie 136 
C9) 


36 Tue Approach To TETUAN 
Hardze 13,7 


37 TETUAN 
Hardie 13,8 


38 Tur Forp 
Hardie 140 


39 TANGIER 
Hardie141 = (A) Trial proof 
(sp) Published State 


40 THe TimBer Mitty 
Hardie142 ~— Trial proof B 
Interior of the timber mill at Overschie, between Rotterdam 
and Delft. 


41 GRIMNESSESLUIS 
Hardze 143, 


The Grimnessesluis, a canal at Amsterdam 


42. PENZANCE 
Hardie144_—- (A) Trial proof 8 
(sp) Published State 


43, REPAIRING A BARGE 
Hardie 148 


44 THE Poo. 
Hardie1so ~— (A) Trial proof 9 
(sp) Published State 


45 GAMRIE 
Hardie 151 
A view, from a height, over the harbour of Gamrie (the 
old Scots name for Gardenstone), in Morayshire. 


C10 ) 


46 THe Moray Firtu 
Hardie 152 


47 SEA AND Rain 


Hardze 153 


48 BucHaNn 
Hardie 154 


49 NEwBURGH 
Hardte 155 
The village of Newburgh is seen across a bend of the river 
Ythan. Knockhall Castle stands against the sky on the 
left. 


50 DisqureTuDE (Portrait oF Mrs. Martin Harvie) 
Hardie1s6 ~— (A) Trial proof 5 
(p) Published State 


51 Nicut in Evy CaTHEDRAL 
Hardie 161 


52 [HE Istz or Ety 


Hardie 162 


53 Portrait or Martin Harvie (No. 1) 
Hardze 163 24 proofs 


54 Portrrarr or Martin Harpie (No. 2) 
Hardie 167 24 proofs 


55 [HE Crucifix, BOULOGNE 


Hardie 168 


56 A Norman Port 
Hardie 169 


(a8) 


57 [HE Quai GAMBETTA, BOULOGNE 
Hardze 170 


58 THE Sussex 
Hardie 171 


59 RovEN 
Hardie 172 


60 Tur SEINE AT ROUEN 
Hardie 173 


61 THE SomME FRONT 
Hardie 174 


62 Francais INCONNUS 
Hardie 176 


63 SPRING, 1917 
Hardze 177 


64 ALBERT 
Hardze 179 


65 Ras-EL-AIN 
Hardze 180 


66 Dawn. THE CaMet Patrot SETTING OuT 
Hardie 181 
This and the following four plates deal with the work of 
a Camel Patrol starting from a post on the Suex Canal 
into the desert of Sinai towards Beersheeba. 


67 THe Mrp-Day Hatt 
Hardie 182 ~~ (A) Trial proof 
(a) Published State 


C12) 


68 Tue Desert or Srnar (No. 2) 
Hardie 184 


69 SuNsET: WapI-uM-MUKHSHEIB 


Hardie 185 


70 STRANGE SIGNALS 
Hardie 186 


71 A DEsERTED Oasis 
Hardze 187 


72 [HE S1tk Dress 
Hardie 188 


73, Marcor as Lopoxova 
Hardie 189 


74 THE PIANIstT 
Hardie 190 


75 Dust, BEERSHEBA 


Hardie 193 


76 THe SNIPER (No. 2) 
Hardie 195 


77 [ue First SIGHT OF JERUSALEM 


Hardie 197 


78 THE ADVANCE ON JERUSALEM 


Hardie 198 


79 THE SURRENDER OF JERUSALEM 


Hardie 199 
Coe. 


80 GAzA: PRISONERS OF WAR 
Hardie 202 


8x1 GuN Fire, Mount oF OLIves 
Hardie 204 


82 JERUSALEM FROM OLIVET 
Hardiexo5 ~— (A) Trial proof 5 
(B) Published State 


83 THe Deap Sra 
Hardie 206 


84 Hermon: Cavatry Movine on Damascus 
Hardiezo7 ~— (A) Trial proof 7 
(sp) Published State 


85 A FLoop IN THE FENs 
Hardie 209 


86 MaAcpDUFF 
Hardie 210 


87 BriGHTLINGsEA (No. 2) 
Hardie 112 


88 GERONA 
Hardie 213 


89 ANTWERP 
Hardie 214 


90 GALE AT Port Erroiu 
Hardie 215 


C14) 


gi Tue Ess Tipe 
Hardie 216 


92 VEERE 
Hardie 218 


93 THE Squat, KaAMPEN 


Hardze 219 


94 THE ZuIDER ZEE 


Hardie 220 


95 ZAANSTREEK 
Hardie 221 


96 Mersza: SUNSET 
Hardie 222 


97 BosHamM 


98 Hastincs 


Crs) 


GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 


UNO 


3 3125 01277 3590 








